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by codeivore
1597 days ago
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Spotify taking Rogan's stuff down is not an example of censorship, since they are a private enterprise and retain the right to decide what content they publish. It would be censorship if the FCC (or similar Swedish org) told Spotify they had to take it down. Rogan is free to go publish his bullshit elsewhere. |
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Censorship in the US has usually been through private groups who practically control most distribution of a medium. That allows the private groups to control what the censorship consists of, allows the censorship to be less accountable and regulated, and allows it to better serve the interests of the groups who control it, while avoiding the imposition of state censorship. In the Hays Code era, you were perfectly legally able to make a film that, say, had an interracial relationship, or had clergy as less than paragons of morality, or criticized the judicial system. You just wouldn't be able to use essentially any significant production company, any actor connected with any significant production company, essentially any distributor, or essentially any theatre in the country.
Spotify controls a significant amount of the streaming market, but not as much as the MPAA did and does for film. Spotify by itself choosing not to allow content doesn't enormously harm someone's ability publish. However, I could easily see this trend turning into US-style censorship of streaming, if a few of the major streaming services started coordinating such decisions and guidelines. It would take less than ten companies coordinating in order to control well over 90% of streaming distribution. That can be every bit as strong as state censorship, if not even worse.